


Let's share this mattress on this loft until one of us falls of

by guzyucriew



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Mentioned Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:48:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29161434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guzyucriew/pseuds/guzyucriew
Summary: Alex Mercer plays in a band named Sunset Curve, he's the drummer. Alex finds out something about himself that he shares with his bandmates Reggie Peters, Bobby and Luke Patterson. He fights with his parents over his lifestyle and soon enough he ends up sharing the garage with Luke as a living space.An AU where the boys survive the hotdogs and continue playing together as a band.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. First

The band Sunset Curve are rehearsing their new song in a garage just outside of Los Angeles and Alex Mercer, the blond tall drummer is hitting the drums with a lot of more aggression than usual. His bandmates stop playing and give him a questioning but curious look. Alex doesn’t notice the sudden stop in music and keeps hitting the drums like his life depends on it. The short, black haired bass player Reggie puts his bass down and takes a step forward. “Hey, Hey” he says while catching one of Alex’s flying arms. Reggie is small, but he is strong so Alex slows down and eventually stops playing the drums and gives his bandmates a disappointed look, almost like he had been betrayed by all three of them. He looks down at his feet and tries to catch his breath from the sudden outrage. He kind of feels bad for the drums, they did not deserve to be hit that hard. They hadn’t done him any wrong, he continues thinking as he stands up and makes his way over to one of the couches in the garage, all while still looking at the ground and holding his drumsticks tightly in his grip, not saying a thing. He thinks that his bandmates doesn’t deserve to take the hit for his behaviour either, but he just can’t control his feelings right now. It feels like the world is slightly against him. 

Reggie looks at the silent boy sitting down and then at his other two bandmates and signals them to follow his lead. The lead singer and guitarist, Luke puts down his guitar and follows Reggie to the couch where Alex was sitting, now curled up to a ball, still not making a sound. The lead guitarist Bobby also puts his instrument down and follows, sitting down in the couch opposite to Alex. Reggie is seated next to Bobby and Luke takes a seat next to Alex and gives him a comforting embrace. 

Luke is used to Alex being emotional, they’ve been friends since middle school and has been hanging out around each other almost everyday the last couple of years because of the band. Reggie and Bobby are also very close with the boys but not in the same way as Luke and Alex, they just know what’s up even before it’s actually happening. That’s why Luke is now really concerned about Alex, because he has no clue what’s wrong, or why he is acting this way. 

After a couple of minutes of silence, ALex finally speaks up. “Thank you Luke” he says quietly. Reggie sees this as a perfect opportunity to ask Alex what’s wrong, “Hey Alex, how are you, man? What’s going on?” Reggie gives him a comforting look and Luke looses his grip on Alex so that he can sit up straight (lol) and look back at Reggie. He looks over at Bobby who’s also watching him and then back at Reggie “Uhm..I.. I just had a really bad day” he says. The three boys doesn’t believe his answer for a second. “Okay, man look..it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but we can clearly see something is bothering you, something more than just a bad day. Again, it’s totally fine if you wanna keep it to yourself but just know we’re here for you, you can tell us anything, Alex” Luke speaks up. “Yeah man, this is a safe space, we talk about everything here, so what’s up?” Bobby continues. Alex puts his head in his hands and sighs loudly before looking up again, facing Luke he opens up “It’s my parents, this morning we had an argument and it just felt so wrong you know? Like I fight with my parents all the time, I mean we all do. But this time it was different, I felt like it’s not gonna be the same again , you know?” He finishes and eyes his bandmates who were listening closely to his words. “I’m sure it’s gonna be fine? Like you said, we all fight with our parents and it always goes back to normal again?” Reggie says and Alex nods “Yeah I guess you’re right”. Reggie continues “ and if it doesn’t you can always come to us and talk, or write a song about it, sometimes that helps” Alex nods and trusts his friend on this. Reggies parents haven’t stopped fighting for as long as Alex had known him. It’s definitely taken a toll on him but he’s found great ways to cope with it. He often escapes to one of two places, the first being the garage, playing music with his three best friends always cheers him up. And the second place being a farm a bit outside of the big city, he often goes there to look and talk to the horses and just let’s himself feel like a farm boy without any problems. Reggie looks proud of helping his friend and the boys start talking about other subjects, totally forgetting about rehearsal and drowning in each other's words. But Luke senses something is still bothering Alex and makes a mental note to ask him about it later. 

Eventually Bobby looks at the clock on his arm and tells the boys he probably should get going. “It’s sunday night and I need to get my 9 hours” He says while starting to collect his things. Luke chuckles a little “You sound very rock ‘n roll when you say that. man” and Alex and Reggie laugh along with him. But Bobby just smiles “You say that now, but look who’s gonna rock school tomorrow while you’re trying to catch up on your sleeping in history class, Goodnight boys” Bobby finishes as he leaves the garage “Yeah, Yeah! Whatever sleeping beauty, see you tomorrow” Luke shouts after him as he’s making his way to the bus stop. Knowing Bobby is right, he starts to get ready for another night at the garage loft. Luke had a fight with his parents a couple of months back about his future and them not wanting him to continue in the band. So to show them that he’s serious and that he’s not playing around with this band, he got on his bicycle and told himself that he’s not going back until the band has made it big. Of course he misses them every day but he is serious about his music and he wants to show them that. So he’s been crashing on a mattress on the loft in the garage and today is not exception. “Yeah I’m probably going to sleep as well, maybe I could skip the history nap tomorrow” he chuckles. Reggie nods and stands up, puts his backpack on and makes his way to the door, “Hey Alex! You coming?” he turns around. Alex stands up tiredly, mumbles a yes and follows Reggie through the door. 

They make their way to their bikes laying on the driveway where they left them. “You sure you’ll be okay tonight, going home and all? You can always crash at mine you know? If it gets to much” Alex is very thankful for Reggie’s offer but he has a feeling that if he doesn’t come home his parents would just get angrier. He tells Reggie this and he immediately understands. They split ways and make their way home.


	2. Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex doesn't show up at school

It’s monday morning 6:30 am and Luke is just waking up in the garage. Since he can’t keep food in there since it would go bad, Alex usually brings him a banana for breakfast, which he appreciates a lot. He walks down the steps and goes into the bathroom to take a quick cold shower just to wake him up. He throws himself on his bike and bikes his way to school, seeing Reggie parking his bicycle in the stands while talking to some blonde girl. Luke decides that he’s not in the mood for flirting with random girls alongside Reggie today either. He’s not really been feeling it the last couple of weeks, so he just tries to avoid girls all together, except of course his friends but then again there aren’t very many except the band. His mind is still on Alex, and how weird he was acting yesterday he goes around the school, heading for the backdoors. He figured he’d ask Alex privately today either in school or at band practice later. Because something just did not feel like it usually does, he doesn’t react like this over a little argument about the band, he figures this must have been about something else. 

Avoiding Reggie, not so much Reggie but his pack of girls around him. He enters through the doors and makes his way to his locker to get his history books, history is the most boring subject to Luke, he totally hates it, but he shares the class with Reggie and Alex so it’s usually a good time anyways. He waits by his locker for Reggie and Alex and soon enough Reggie comes headed his way with his usual morning smile on his face. “Hey! When did you get here? I didn’t see you walk in, I was talking to this amazing girl, we’re actually going on a date this friday, after our gig, which by the way she’s attending so practice is extra important this week!” Reggie says as he opens his locker and puts his book in his backpack. “Practice is always extra important Reg, and I just got here a bit early, figure I’d catch Alex before class starts, have you seen him around by the way?” Luke is aware that he’s kind of lying but he figures the truth that he was avoiding Reggie and his date earlier would just hurt him. Reggie took a look around and then shook his head “no I actually haven’t seen him today, maybe he’s late?” he says. Luke nods “yeah, probably” but he kind of feels like that’s not it, Alex is never late, well except for yesterday at band practice, but then he’d been mad at his parents. Luke hopes he will show up to class so that he doesn’t have to worry. 

But the first period goes by without a sight of the tall blonde boy, and then second period. By lunch Luke is so worried he can’t take it anymore. He tells Rggie and Bobby that he’s going to check up on Alex and runs to the office. “Hello darling how can I help you?” the older lady at the desk asks him, she kind of knows Luke because he’s been in office so many times because of falling asleep in class or talking too loud with Reggie and Alex. “Um.. I was just wondering if Alex, Alex Mercer has called in sick today?” he asks the lady while leaning against her desk, eager to find out why his friend is absent. “Let me check” she taps away on her computer while making that “cho cho cho” sound that every adult uses whilst trying to use computers, or really any technology whatsoever. “Looks like he’s not sick, but he’s been in his first three classes, do you know if your friend is skipping school on purpose?” she ask Luke and gives him a serious look through her small purple glasses sitting on her nose. “No, no he wouldn’t do that, I’m on my way to check on him right now, I sense something is wrong, could you write me a pass for spanish in case I don’t make it back in time?” he hopes that the lady would see his concern and cut him some slack, and he’s in luck. The lady nods and hands him his paper, wishes him good luck and goes back to typing on her computer, there’s that sound again “cho cho cho”

When Luke turns up at Alex’s house he figures he better go straight to Alex’s window. It’s better not to risk and he can’t risk his parents being home, sensing Alex's absence has something to do with their fight. He walks behind the garage and crosses the lawn while holding his head down, trying his best not to get seen. Luke has always been a little scared of Alex’s parents, even when they have not been mad, so Mr and Mrs Mercer being mad or angry is not something he wants to meet today. 

He walks up to Alex’s window and looks through it slightly, he sees Alex on his bed, he’s sitting with his back against the window, looking like he’s just staring in to the opposite wall. Luke taps lightly on the glass, trying not to scare Alex too much. When the boy doesn’t react he taps a little bit harder, Alex jumps a little and turns his head in the direction of the window and Luke. Luke waves and Alex looks like he’s seen a ghost, but still he walks up and lets the boy outside of the window into his room. Luke enters with a loud crash and Alex looks with an expression of panic at his door. The boys hear foot steps and Alex whispers to Luke “hide! hide in the closet you can’t be here!” Luke is startled but does as he is told and gets in to the closet and closes the door just as Mrs. Mercer enters the room. “What was that noise I heard? The crash coming from your room?” Alex tries to come up with an excuse on the top of his head. “Um...I fell of my bed?” he answers and his mother nods “Alright, but we told you to come up here to think about what we told you, we love you Alex but you can’t live like this. How are you supposed to get married and have children? We just wants what’s best for you, you know?” she says and then leaves, Alex just nods, trying to keep the tears in his eyes from forming. Not only did his mother, his own mother just say that to him, but his best friend also heard it all from inside of a closet. Alex takes his seat on the bed before remembering Luke in the closet “ok, you can come out now I think it’s clear as long as we keep quiet.” Alex says from his bed. Luke merges through the clothes and makes his way over to Alex’s bed. He takes a seat next to his friend on the bed and tries to work out in his head what Alex’s mother was referring to. But before he can ask Alex speaks up.

“What are you doing here?” he asks calmly, still trying to hold in his tears. Not that he’s afraid of crying in front of Luke, but he dosen’t want his stupid mother to get to him on this level. “Well you seemed a little upset yesterday and today you didn’t show up at school so I figured the only reasonable thing to do is to check up on you. so what’s up, I heard what your mom said about you thinking about your life? What was that all about?” Luke says calmly. Oh, yeah well it’s nothing special, you know the typical “what are you doing with your life talk, we fought a little this morning and she figured I could use the day thinking about it?” Alex answers, avoiding eye contact. “But then why would she talk about marriage and children?” Luke asks, Alex just shrugs and looks down at his hands, intertwined with each other. “Look, man you don’t have to tell me anything but I really do care about you and I can see that this is hurting you deeply and it hurts me too. So if there’s something on your chest, whatever it is, you can dump it on me” Luke says. Alex stays quiet until he can’t keep the tears in any longer and he sniffles a little bit. Luke notices and scootches closer to him, laying a comforting hand on his back he says “hey, hey whatäs up? tell me”. Alex raises his head and looks him in the eye for the first time since he came here. “There’s..there’s something I need to tell you, and I’m sorry if it changes your opinion on me, it clearly changed my parent’s so..” Luke is surprised by his words but he tells him “you can tell me anything, you’ll be my best friend no matter what, I promise” Luke puts a comforting hand on Alex's arm and changes his sitting position so that he’s face to face with Alex. “I’m gay” Alex says. Luke doesn’t really know how to react so he just says nothing and instead just hugs his friend tightly to show him that it doesn’t matter to him. 

But this sure makes Luke’s head start spinning...


End file.
